Schools of all types continue to see benefit in document management

Increasingly, school districts and other educational institutions recognize the ability of paperless processes to simultaneously aid students, teachers and administrators maximize educational outcomes at a relatively low cost. By going with document management platforms that help get everyone on the same page, everyone's life may get just a little bit easier.

In 2014, New York lawmakers passed a bill that authorized schools to invest $2 billion across the state in infrastructure and technology, and many districts opted to put their share of that money into buying take-home laptops that ensure students from grades 5 to 12 stay  on top of their homework, according to Newsday.

What's the impact?
In districts making such a tech investment, students have a greater ability to reach out to teachers and each other, helping them complete assignments with more ease, the report said. This also replaces the need for schools to continually pay to update their textbooks on a regular basis, potentially saving significant money over the course of time while also reaching kids on a tech level they already understand.

"It opened opportunities to use inquiry-based learning and brings education to the world that the kids are living in now," North Babylon Superintendent Glen Eschbach told the newspaper.

Benefiting more students
Meanwhile, take-home laptop programs may be particularly impactful for students from lower-income households, according to the Waxahatchie Daily Light. Even if these devices aren't given out to every student having them available for checkout often goes a long way toward improving educational outcomes.

Furthermore, Waxahachie Independent School District conducted a poll of teachers at the start of the school year and found that a lack of devices made it more difficult to implement the kinds of lesson plans they would have wanted, the report said. That's especially true because, for many kids, the only device they have of their own these days is a smartphone, which often isn't conducive to education-specific goals.

The more schools can do to make sure they are supporting teachers, students and administrators with adequate technology – both in terms of hardware like computers and software including document management platforms – the better off they are likely to be in the long run.